Hey Rebecca! You are close to me. I live in Claremore. I actually lurked here for a few years before I got the nerve to join. This is a great group.

Thanks! I'll read and learn from the other boards, but I think I'll just hang out and talk here. Feels like a kinder, gentler board.

Please don't knock tentatively;) Knock loud and proud. I was pretty scared, too. We ARE part of this family of Oklahoma gardeners. Big and small. Thank you for coming here.

Hi Rebecca! Welcome, and I am so glad you decided to stop lurking and start talking!!! We love having lurkers turn into talkers.

It looks to me like you're doing just fine based on your photos.

As for clay, one flowering plant that has worked especially well for me in dense, slow-draining clay is Mava sylvestris. I have grown 'Zebrina' and 'Mystic Merlin', which have slightly different flowers colors. Mine reseed even in our worst clay. Zinnias and sunflowers also do really well in our worst clay, but they will do better in amended clay. Moss rose does surprisingly well in clay, though in the absolute worst wet years (like last year), they sometimes rot off at the ground level if the clay stays too wet too long. The difference in the two ypes of soil here (unamended dense, slow-draining red clay vs. amended clay) is that the plants get larger in the better soil and they survive drought better, but even in poor clay they do surprisingly well. So does Angel's trumpets, gomphrena (aka globe amaranth) and salvia farinacea. Cannas also haven't minded awful clay, and some coneflowers tolerate it too. Amaranths and celosia tolerate clay.

Just today I was looking at a childhood photo of us kids standing in front of my mom's clay-based flower bed in Texas in the 1960s and her entire bed was filled with zinnias and cockscombs, and they were gorgeous. She wasn't much of a gardener and she didn't do soil prep. She just scattered seeds on the soil surface after my dad dug up the ground by hand. If she could grow those gorgeous flowers in plain old clay, I think they might do well for you too.

Dawn

Hi Dawn! I have cannas that do very well in my front flowerbed, despite being clay and facing west, so anything in that bed has to be super hardy to survive summer. Annuals that do well in summer have been zinnias and petunias, and I've just planted sunflower and something called a Mexican sunflower (supposed to attract pollinators and butterflies). I also have a Tropicana rosebush that soldiers on, year after year. In the spring I have bearded iris, Dutch iris, lots of different daffodils, hyacinth, and Asiatic lilies. The lilies are amazing, this year I had one almost 6 feet tall, and several 5 footers. I'll see if I can upload pictures. People stopped and took pictures, and all they are are lilies from a random mix bag from Wal-mart. The guys at the nursery didn't believe me that I could grow them in clay until I brought pictures. And all I do is plant them and leave them alone.

Hi Rebecca! I"m sorta new--well, it's been a couple of years since I've found this forum. I'm so glad you posted! I still am concerned that I'll say something stupid or offensive or whatever, but everyone here is so nice (and forgiving haha). Your plants look great!

good looking garden Dawn and glad you decided to speak up!

Welcome Rebecca! Looks like you are getting along pretty well!

George

Rebecca, Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundifolia) has done really well for me here. I have to be extra careful where I plant it because it gets huge and can overwhelm adjacent plants that are smaller. I have grown at least three different tithonia varieties: Torch (reaches 5' in height or taller), Fiesta del Sol (more compact at around 2.5-3') and Goldfinger (also more compact and more golden than orange blooms). I like to wait and plant tithonia at mid-summer to fill in space left by the harvest of some of the spring/summe veggies. They grow very quickly in the heat and give me something to look forward to later in the summer.

Lilies do well for me in clay in all but the wettest of years, and daylilies do even better. I have grown daylilies in some really awful dense clay. I'm glad to hear that your lilies are so beautiful this year. American Cross Vine does well in our worst clay with almost no irrigation (it did very well in 2011 when we had almost no rainfall for 90 days, and I only watered it 2 or 3 times during that period) and so does Trumpet Creeper Vine, though the trumpet creeper can be really invasive so doesn't work as well for people with more compact yards. Since we are on acreage, I can grow all of it that I wish to grow, as long as I keep it away from other plants that it might bury beneath its rampant growth.

Hazel, Ha ha on the saying something stupid. I understand how you feel. I've been here 11 years and still feel like I have to be careful to avoid saying something stupid. I think that it is just human nature to feel that way.

Dawn

I de-lurked a year or two ago. Everyone is helpful and friendly! Rebecca - Impressed that you have peppers set...I have none. (I'm in Chickasha...so further south than you for sure!) :)